A submarine topography three-dimensional grid has wide applications and a submarine topography grid is applied to any field related to the submarine topography, for example: mapping of foundation maps such as submarine topography map, water depth chart and submarine geomorphological map and the like, visual display of the submarine topography, submarine topography walkthrough, and even including digital earth and digital marine that both require the submarine topography as a supporting foundation. According to different grid forming manners, the submarine topography grid includes square grid and triangle grid. Because the square grid is easy for use and data exchange, the square grid, which is also called grid or gridding, is mostly used in present submarine topography mapping. There is various data that builds the submarine topography grid, for example: single-beam sounding, multi-beam sounding, historical topography map and the like.
The submarine topography grid plays a very important role in marine mapping, marine charting, submarine scientific studies, computer visualization and the like. However, with the requirement for broader application and further research, the submarine topography three-dimensional grid cannot satisfy the current demands. For instance: the topography changes frequently in estuary regions; therefore, the temporal and spatial variation of the submarine topography cannot be studied unless time is added in the submarine topography three-dimensional grid to form a four-dimensional grid. For another instance: the continental margin is the core area for marine demarcation which needs to determine the foot point of the continental slope. Slope and second derivative are the basic parameters to determine the foot point of the continental slope. At this time, the demarcation between the continental slope and the sea basin cannot be studied unless the slope and second derivative are added in the submarine topography three-dimensional grid to establish a five-dimensional grid, thus accurately determining the position of the foot point of the continental slope. For a further instance: during a submarine charting process, it is difficult to prepare the submarine topography map, slope map and second derivative map by only depending on the submarine topography three-dimensional grid, and a five-dimensional grid including topography, slope and second derivative needs to be used.
Upon the analysis on the basis of retrieved public data, there is no mature technical method for establishing a submarine topography six-dimensional grid including X-coordinate, Y-coordinate, topography, slope, second derivative and time at present.